DACONO -- For many Americans, Veterans Day is a time to remember the sacrifices made by members of the country's military. But Jerry Portz has mixed feelings about thinking back to his Army service during the Korean War.

"It's best we forget," he said. "I don't know."

It still shocks the 82-year-old veteran to consider that more than 54,000 American service members died during the three years of the war, including almost 34,000 in battle.

Korea

Jerome Portz

Age: 82

Branch: Army

Served: Korea 1950 to 1952

Hometown: Dacono

To mark Veterans Day 2011, Longmont Times-Call reporter Quentin Young and photographer Joshua Buck interviewed local veterans about their experiences at war. The six veterans who were interviewed served in one of six major conflicts involving the United States military: World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq. The series includes feature stories and videos of the interviews, which may be viewed at TimesCall.com. The schedule:

Sunday: Lee Springer, World War II

Monday: Jerome Portz, Korea

Tuesday: Dan Pineda, Vietnam

Wednesday: Rick Chatwell, Gulf War

Thursday: Dane Shockley, Afghanistan

Friday: Gary Stump, Iraq

About seven of those battle deaths occurred before Portz's eyes on Feb. 4, 1951. He and fellow soldiers were working their way up a hill on attack when an artillery round exploded in their midst. Among the dead were Portz's squad leader, whose legs landed in a tree. Portz was seriously wounded and had to be transported to a hospital in Japan.

Jerome Portz in a photograph from the 1950s. He joined the Army in 1949 and was stationed in Japan until the Korean War began the following year.
(
JOSHUA BUCK
)

It was the second time he was wounded by an artillery round. The first occurred on Sept. 14, 1950. He treated the wound by pouring whiskey on it, and was off the front line for three weeks. He has two Purple Hearts from his deployment, and that's not to mention his two bouts with malaria during the war.

Portz's recollections from Korea are dominated by the foxhole.

"Our home was a foxhole," he said.

The troops operated in an unrelenting cloud of fear, but there was nothing to do but be "thankful to be alive and go from there."

"I guess you get so scared you're not scared anymore," Portz said.

Portz was born in 1929 and spent his childhood on family farms in Nebraska until he joined the Army in 1949. He was stationed in Japan for about seven months until war broke out in Korea. He tries not to think about the war.

"I kind of phase it out," he said.

In a two-page autobiography Portz once wrote, he devoted one paragraph to Korea.

"The only way I can explain Korea is HELL," he wrote. "My name came up to go back to the States. I was glad to hear that. But I almost did not believe it."

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.